Lewis Hamilton led the way once again in the second practice session for at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, but a mid-session red flag means the one-lap pace order unclear.
The red flag was triggered for Alex Albon, whose Williams car suffered a fuel system issue that forced him to stop on track beneath the Sphere. Albon had returned to pit lane after only three laps for repairs. The team had thought it had fixed the issue, but Albon’s car lasted only a handful of corners before being parked up with around 25m still on the clock.
The disruption came at the worst possible time for the front-runners, who were in the middle of their qualifying simulation runs. In the cool of the late evening — the track surface only just nudged 55 degrees F — drivers were setting two flying laps on the soft tire and finding considerable time with their second attempts, once the rubber was up to temperature.
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Hamilton had just completed his second flying lap in his Mercedes to move 0.011s clear of Lando Norris at the top of the order, the McLaren driver having only just completed his first flying lap. George Russell, on the same program as Hamilton, was third and 0.19s slower than his teammate.
The timing of the suspension was far more problematic for Red Bull Racing, which had only just sent Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez on their qualifying simulation programs.
Verstappen had just passed through the second sector on his first flying lap when the red flags were waved, and with less than 20 minutes remaining when the session resumed, he switched straight to his race simulations for the rest of the session. What little could be gleaned from his split times, however, was uninspiring, the Dutchman 1.094s down on Hamilton before even making it through the final sector. Perez was similarly off the pace.
Without the Red Bull Racing cars in the mix, Ferrari was in a solo battle for time behind Mercedes and McLaren. Carlos Sainz — switching back to the floor that he will use for the rest of the weekend after having tried a development part in FP1 — was the fastest of the two, 0.280s off the pace in fourth. Charles Leclerc was 0.208s further back, but he abandoned his second flying lap early, missing out on the progression of a second attempt.
Pierre Gasly was sixth for Alpine at the head of the midfield, lapping 0.826s off the pace to beat Haas’s Kevin Magnussen by 0.035s, the Dane having been the only driver to set a soft-tire fast lap after the red flag.
Oscar Piastri, who did not complete his qualifying simulation program due to the red flag, was eighth and 0.973s adrift ahead of Nico Hulkenberg and Yuki Tsunoda completing the top 10.
Valtteri Bottas was 11th ahead of Esteban Ocon, Lance Stroll, Fernando Alonso — the Spaniard complained of poor setup choice triggering bouncing early in the session — and Liam Lawson.
Zhou Guanyu was 16th ahead of the out-of-position Verstappen, Franco Colapinto, Sergio Perez and the stricken Albon.
